ASIA Live: 1982 Debut Tour 5/13 Royal Oak Music Theater Detroit /Bonus '82 Milan '83 Montreal Tracks

You have found a terrific recording of an energetic performance by the British supergroup Asia as they forcefully play all nine tracks from their eponymous 1982 debut album at a May 13, 1982 show at the Royal Oak Music Theater in Royal Oak, Michigan north of Detroit. The time-stamped setlist provided below from this concert is supplemented by four bonus tracks featuring other songs from the 1982 Asia and 1983 Alpha albums. The 5/13/82 Detroit recording I used for this post was missing "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes" so a nice performance from the October 19, 1982 show in Milan, Italy has been added to the bonus pool. The audio is synched to pictures of the band during the 1982 tour and many Asia related graphics and album cover art. Asia began in early 1981 after the apparent ending of two of the founding bands of British progressive rock Yes and Emerson Lake & Palmer. After the breakup of King Crimson in 1974, various plans for a supergroup involving bassist and vocalist John Wetton had not been successful, including an abortive British Bulldog project with Bill Bruford and Rick Wakeman in 1976. In early January 1981, Wetton and former Yes guitarist Steve Howe were brought together by A&R man John Kalodner and Geffen Records to start writing material for a new album. They were eventually joined by drummer Carl Palmer and finally by Howe's fellow member of Yes and co-founder of The Buggles, keyboardist Geoff Downes. The new quartet of Downes, Howe, Palmer and Wetton set up shop in London's Townhouse Studios in the summer of 1981. Willing to indulge in pure rock bombast and not shy about writing tricky chord changes, but at the same time tightly focused on the type of pop songcraft that would prove irresistible to Top 40 radio and MTV, the group's creative nucleus built an unlikely bridge between pop, rock and prog. An interesting documentary about the formation of the band can be found here:    • Видео   Asia's self-titled debut album, released in March 1982, gained considerable commercial success. It spent nine weeks at number one on the United States album chart and sold over four million copies in the US alone. The album sold over ten million units worldwide and has never been out of print. In the United States the band sold out every date on their debut tour, which began at Clarkson University's Walker Arena in Potsdam, New York on April 22, 1982. The journey continued on a jam-packed fifty date North American tour until a July 10, 1982 show at the Legend City Amusement Park in Phoenix, Arizona. The 1982 tour began with bookings in theaters but quickly expanded into massive arenas because of high ticket demand. The band played on a two level stage shaped like a giant "A" with Downes' dazzling array of keyboards spread out across the upper level forming the crossbar in the letter "A". During the 1970s and 1980 tours by Yes and Emerson Lake & Palmer there appeared to be a Geoff Downes / Keith Emerson / Patrick Moraz / Rick Wakeman prog keyboards nuclear arms race to see which musician could hoist the most tonnage of synthesizers, organs and pianos onto their musical launch pads. For the 1982 Asia debut tour Geoff Downes' keyboard rig included a Yamaha CS80, Prophet 5, Hammond J-122 organ, Yamaha CP-70B electric grand, two Moog Minimoogs, Fairlight master and slave keyboards, Polymoog, Mellotron, Prophet 10, Solina String Ensemble, Clavinet D6, Rhodes electric piano, Hammond B-3 organ, and a Moog Liberation. Additionally, John Wetton was using a Moog Taurus I bass pedal unit. SETLIST: 1. Introductory Music 2. Time Again 0:25 3. Wildest Dreams 6:00 4. Without You 11:30 Steve Howe Guitar Solo (pieces 5 through 7): 5. Mood For A Day (From the 1971 Yes album 'Fragile') 17:10 6. Clap (From 'The Yes Album' 1971) -with an interlude featuring an excerpt from Antonio Vivaldi's Winter (2nd Movement) 20:10 7. Ram (from the 1975 Steve Howe solo album 'Beginnings') 24:35 8. Midnight Sun (from the 1983 Asia album 'Alpha') 26:35 9. Only Time Will Tell 33:35 10. One Step Closer 38:50 11. Cutting It Fine 43:05 (with Geoff Downes Keyboard Solo 48:10) 12. Here Comes The Feeling 52:45 13. Carl Palmer Drum Solo 57:35 14. Here Comes The Feeling (Reprise) 1:04:00 15. Sole Survivor 1:05:25 ENCORE: 16 Heat Of The Moment 1:12:35 BONUS TRACKS: Live at the Montreal Forum in Quebec, Canada August 5, 1983 17. Don't Cry (Hit single from second Asia album Alpha) 1:19:10 18. The Last To Know (from the 1983 Asia album Alpha) 1:23:10 Live at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey October 17, 2012 19. Ride Easy (B side to Heat Of The Moment single from the 1982 debut album Asia) 1:27:45 Live in Milan, Italy at the Teatro Tenda Lampugnano, Milano October 19, 1982 20. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (from the 1983 Alpha album) 1:33:20